An Aviation Paradise

When I walk into Boylston’s lobby, I enter a crowd adorned in slacks and blazers. Outside, a sign reads: “All things aviation, here at Harvard.” It’s an unusual formality for Boylston, especially on an early Saturday morning. We’re dressing up for airplanes.

Beside me, the red crane of the Japan Airlines’ logo brightens the room as company representatives distribute goodie bags. Inside Fong Auditorium, five black chairs encircle a small, wooden coffee table. A model of a Boeing 787 stands as the centerpiece, as if in flight.

As I settle into my seat, Tomoki Matsuno ’25 and Justin Xu ’25, the Co-Directors of Programming for the Forum, welcome attendees to Harvard’s first Air Transportation Forum. Hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Aviation Insights Caucus, the conference seeks to convene industry leaders and students in a space for aviation enthusiasts at Harvard and elsewhere. Speakers come from all corners of the aviation industry, from a route strategist at Japan Airlines to the CEO of Philadelphia International Airport.

To begin the morning’s program, Matsuno and Xu introduce the opening speakers. The first, Juan C. Salazar, the Secretary-General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), outlines the global challenges of civil aviation in remarks from a video recording. Key among these challenges are safety, airport modernization, economic development, and environmental sustainability. The next speaker, Diana E.H. Birkett Rakow ’99, the Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Sustainability at Alaska Airlines, further emphasizes environmentally-conscious travel, highlighting her airline’s leadership and investment in green technologies and innovation.

The conference then turns to a discussion panel examining the economic implications of route planning and airline operations. Four experts discuss airports, framing them as hubs of economic activity, not just gateways to distant destinations. Boston Logan International Airport, for example, employs nearly 20,000 people and generates just under $20 billion per year in economic benefits.

Looking at the model plane in front of me, I recall how much I once loved airplanes. Eight-year-old me would have listed out the routes that the Dreamliner takes, described its revolutionary General Electric engines, or even nerded about its electronic window shades. This is a place to celebrate planes.

“I’m indubitably an avgeek, and I would say the conference is definitely an avgeek paradise,” James A.W. Bergstrom ’27 tells me on a phone call the week following the conference. Avgeek, short for aviation geek, describes the self-identified aviation-lover. “I’m impressed how they got everyone there though — they had a good lineup.”

When I meet Caucus President Jay Hong Chew ’25 alongside Matsuno and Xu on the night before the forum, we discuss the challenges of finding space for aviation nerdery.

“Traditionally, you don’t think of aviation as necessarily an interest or topic because you would write someone off as an avgeek,” he tells me. “You just embrace the identity. I mean, I love planes.”

Attracting like-minded aviation enthusiasts underscores the nexus of the Aviation Insights Caucus. Chew, alongside Van Tran ’25, founded the Caucus early in 2024 to provide a space for discussing and engaging aviation topics on campus.

“The idea of having an aviation club started pretty early in spring of 2024 when it was pretty apparent that there really was no aviation programming on campus at all, be it academically or extracurricularly,” Chew says. “There were many dinner conversations where people who were pretty interested in the field, but just didn’t know what to do.”

Recognizing this opportunity to foster communal interest in aviation, Chew and others began meeting for dinners in Kirkland House. With time, the group grew in numbers and interests, soon formalized into the Aviation Insights Caucus.

“The heart of it was really trying to build a community of like-minded people who also saw this need or had an interest in learning more about the aviation industry,” Chew says.

The Caucus has roughly 60 members on its email list, but today’s Forum has shown that the extent of aviation interest in the community is far greater.

“There were a lot of people not from Harvard. I don’t know how they heard about it but there were some grad students, postdocs — I was impressed by how many people from the industry were there,” Bergstrom tells me. “It was really cool to get to know them.”

Matsuno and Xu had not initially planned to host such a large conference. However, after Japan Airlines offered to send someone from their headquarters, they were inspired to think bigger. The result is their eight-hour long convention for a new generation of aviation enthusiasts.

“It’s kind of surprising to see the turnout. People who are very senior in these airlines and other organizations in the aviation industry actually replied to our emails. It was very comforting,” Matsuno says.

In the afternoon, the conference turns to aviation’s future — most importantly, sustainability. The panelists see this future vested in experimentation, from route consolidation to new fuel sources. Perhaps most strikingly, Matt Ridley, Director of Sustainability and Innovation at the oneworld Alliance, called upon young people in the audience to lead this change. “We need universities to be seeing this as a huge opportunity,” he tells the audience.

As the Forum concludes, Chew shares his hopes for the aviation community at Harvard.

“The most important thing is that people continue to carry on this mission to make aviation available — not only just people who are interested but people who see themselves working in the industry, being involved, or just being casual observers,” Chew says. “There’s definitely a place or space for us to talk about these things, and that’s why we exist.”

And as I leave Boylston, I crane my neck towards a plane soaring through the clouds.

—Magazine writer Christopher Schwarting can be reached at christopher.schwarting@thecrimson.com.